Leonard Muellner

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.144–148: Couches, chairs, and camera’s choreography

We are pleased to share this segment in the series on reading Homeric epic in ancient Greek. In each installment we read, translate, and discuss a small passage in the original Greek in the most accessible way. If you’ve ever dreamed of reading Homer in the original, here is your chance to do so with teachers who have spent a lifetime thinking about this poetry. With their guidance even new… Read more

Greek dialects in the language of Homer: Mycenaean, and Arcadian

In this video, Gregory Nagy, Douglas Frame, Leonard Muellner, and Keith Stone have an informal discussion about the role of dialects in the Homeric poetic tradition, introducing the Mycenaean phase, and Homeric forms in Arcadian. They include examples from formulas such as epithets within Homeric poetry, and also refer to the work of Aristotle and Theophrastus. Related topics Greek dialects and the poetic super-language Greek dialects in epic: the cake… Read more

Les langues vivaces” at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Lille 2

A guest post by Leonard Muellner In October of 2016, I had the pleasure of talking about Homeric poetry to the largest audience I have ever addressed in the many years I’ve spent teaching Classics—over 500 students in a huge new amphitheater at the University of Lille in northeastern France. The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lille is part of an emphatically public system, supported by tax dollars… Read more

Greek dialects and the poetic super-language

In this video, Gregory Nagy, Douglas Frame, and Leonard Muellner provide an introduction to how ancient Greek dialects function in Homeric poetry: : what the different dialects are, how different forms fit into the metrical structure, and the evolution and perpetuation of the poetic super-language.. Topics include: Attic Greek koinē Ionian Aeolian metrical differences and lack of redundancy formulae evolution and perpetuation of the poetic super-language Related topics Greek dialects… Read more